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Family History of the Matthias Brimberry and Mary Anderson Families/Spicey and Dicey
From: jlb651@bellsouth.net Subject: WALKER_SHORTLIST Re: TWWFA: Re:Walker-Meek connection Date: January 12, 2007 4:52:48 PM EST To: TWWFA@googlegroups.com Cc: WalkerShortList@googlegroups.com Text: Spicy Walker (1776-1821) was the sister of my direct ancestor, Dicey Walker (1770/1-1823). Dicey m. Peter Brymberry in the spring of 1790; her younger sister Spicy m. James Meek that same summer. Their parents are not known. Their husbands lived in the vicinity of Capt. James Thompson's Kilmackroan tract and Col. Aaron Lewis tract on Bakers Creek, which is a tributary of the Middle Fork of the Holstein River. The Meek old stone house is located between Glade Spring and Chilhowie a short distance from I-87 exit 13. James Meek and Spicy Walker were the parents of mountain man and western explorer Joseph Lafayette Meek, who the Oregon Historical Society has called "the Daniel Boone" of Oregon Terrtitory. He was mentioned at the beginning and at the end of Ken Burn's series on the West. He frequently rendevouzed and explored the west, including the California country, with Joseph R. Walker, who "piloted" the Bonneville expedition. Meek's biographers, including Frances Fuller Victor, stated that he President Polk's Walker kin. President Polk appointed Joe Meek the first U.S. marshal of Oregon Territory. No one disputed Meek's claim of kinship with Polk in his widely read biography "The River of the West", published in 1870, by Fuller under the supervision of the Bancroft historian after whom the U.Calif. library at Berkley is named. Polk's widow did not die until 1890. Likewise, Oren Morten, who published a history of Rockbridge Co. in 1920, stated that Joe Meek's roots can be traced to Rockbridge Co. Though unproven, these bits and piece of information gleaned from the past suggest that Meek may have been related to the president by marriage as well as to westering Joseph R. Walker. Meek's brother, Stephen, and Walker's brother, Joel, lived near each other in Oregon and moved their families together to California. My understanding is that Joseph R. Walker and Ewing's Walker line which has a proven connection to Polk likely moved to Rockbridge Co. from Goochland Co. Most of my research efforts have been in Washington Co., VA where Dicey and Spicy's marriages were both performed by Methodist minister Nicholas Reagan, who lived in Clinchburg hear Saltville. They appear to have been "orphaned" or perhaps were hidden from other records by virtue of living with a step-father. It is also worth mentioning that there are two references to a David Walker in the early records of Washington Co. (1) David Walker's "old survey line" was very near the Meek's considerable property. (2) David Walker signed a petition to create Russell Co. in 1787 however he does not appear on any tax rolls or in Russell Co. In 1785, widow Elizabeth Walker m. widower John Crank. The assumption has always been that she was the widow of William Walker of Laurel Fork near Saltville who died intestate "during the winter of 1789/1790" according to litigation records. There is the chance that there may have been two widows named Elizabeth Walker in the same vicinity at the same time, and that John Crank married Dicey and Spicy's widowed mother, not William Walker of Laurel Fork's widow. The mystery continues. Jerry From: jlb651@bellsouth.net Subject: TWWFA: Re: Walker-Meek connection Date: January 13, 2007 8:07:35 AM EST To: WalkerShortList@googlegroups.com I primarily wrote above for the benefit of those fairly new to the discussion about Dicey & Spicy, including Wendell Walker, who is descended from William & Elizabeth Walker of Laurel Fork in then Washington Co. (now Tazewell Co.), VA. Another unproven research hypothesis is that Dicey and Spicy were the "orphaned" nieces of William Walker of Laurel Fork and may have been under his care when William died "during the winter of 1789/90". This raises the question of whether William of Laurel Fork was also a Goochland Walker. However, this ignores the fact that one of William's descendants is unmatched in the Walker Surname DNA Project. In turn, this raises the need for another direct male descendant to be tested whose line of descent from William is better documented. Otherwise, the solo test remains uncorraborated. The third possibility is that Dicey & Spicy were not related to either the Goochland/ Rockbridge Walkers or to William of Laurel Fork. I consider this possibility less likely in the presence of so much circumstantial evidence. Yet, nothing is (un)proven. Category:Brimberry (surname)